LA FALDA

Hello there fam!!! I hope you all are just swell and loving life, cause life is pretty great. :)

Yesterday we had real traslados (transfers), buuuuuttt nothing happened. Hna Chelser and I are still in La Falda. Wooooo!!! I´m excited. La Falda is definitely different than MdP. Our area is a lot smaller and the branch here is teeny (although basically all the members just happen to be on vacation this month), but it´s great! We love it. And the people here are all wonderful. And eating lunch at President´s house every week is pretty cool too... ;)

This week the hot turned on. Like the real hot. We had the nice sea breeze in MdP. Yeah, not here haha. I´ve never been so sweaty in my life! Not even as a lifeguard!! But we love it. It´s more funny than anything else. We did have a nice downpour this week tho. We were in the middle of a lesson with an investigator named Angie when it started and she lent us her umbrella when we were leaving cause it was still going. Well, the umbrella was only kind of keeping us dry so we found shelter underneath a porch. Two minutes later the door opens and someone runs out and the guy that lives there invited us in to keep dry. His 7-year-old daughter then gave us a whole 30 minutes lesson on dinosaurs! Haha, that made my week. I could not believe how much she knew. She showed us ALL her dinosaur toys and explained every single kind to us. :)

Ok, the real highlight of the week tho were the two baptisms on Saturday!! The two daughters, Mariana and Macarena, in the little family got bapitzed. It was SO good. They just loved every bit of it and Norma was all teary. You could tell she really felt and understood how important this was for her family. We´re trying to prepare her for baptism next month. Haha, so we only had one, rather large, white dress for the baptism... We had the older one, Mariana, go first. It went all the way down to her ankles but fit ok. Then the little one, Macarena, had to put on this huge, soaking wet dress right after. Haha, she was such a good sport. We tried to roll the end of the dress up so she wouldn´t trip all over. Hna Chesler and I were trying not to laugh. Luckily, it all went ok, and the important thing is we could feel the Spirit. :)

These past couple weeks I´ve been studying about the Atonement/the Savior and my love for Him and for the people has grown immensely. His life and sacrifice for us are truly incredible. I invite you all to do the same! Take some time each day to study about Him and about what He has done for you. I promise your love will increase and your burdens will feel lighter!

Well fam, I sure do love you!! Keep smiling and saying your prayers! :)

Con mucho amor,
Hna Chipman

Haha, she´s trying to keep the papa gato from eating all the food.

View from our casa. Not too shabby. ;)

Yeah, it´s that hot...

Sorry for the lack of pics... the comp I´m using isn't letting me load some of them, like the pics of the baptism. :( I´ll try again next week!!

"Emergency" Transfers

Hoolaaaa de Bahía!!

No worries fam, there was no emergency. Just emergency transfers, which basically means they just need to do a transfer of a couple missionaries in the middle of one of our normal transfers. So I´m in La Falda now, a little branch in Bahía. We traveled here on Friday. Presidente lives in our area and we get to eat lunch with him every Wednesday. Oh yeah. :) I actually traded places with Hna Kroska, so now she is in Mar del Plata with Hna Saunders. It was good to see her for a little bit!

My new compy is Hna Chesler. She´s from West Virginia, but her fam just moved to Utah. She´s 22 and graduated from BYU-I just before she came here. She´s awesome. I love her already! We´re gonna have a blast. We´re the only missionaries in our area, which means we have the house to ourselves. It´s fun. She´s a really great missionary and I´m learning a lot from her!! :)

In other news, I actually have a washing machine now which means my clothes are finally really clean!! Haha, the simple things in life.

I´ve met a few of our investigators here. There´s a family of a mom and her two daughters that are SUPER solid. The daughters are set to get baptized this weekend and we´re praying for the mom too. Just a couple things to work out first. There´s also this 14 year old kid, Augustín, that they´ve been teaching. He hasn´t really seen the need to get baptized but yesterday we had a super good lesson with him and he´s going to really pray about it. He wants to find an answer. It was actually a miracle that we found him. They had been looking for him all week, coming by, calling. Nothing. So we decided to not go by for awhile. But yesterday his dad had seen us walking around and he rode up to us on his motorcycle and told us Augustín was home so we went by and found him!!!

The more I do this work, the more I realize it is impossible without God. You have to have His help or your will not get anywhere. We see little miracles happen all the time. We´re guided to the right place at the right time and hearts are touched, certainly not by what we say in broken Castellano, but by God Himself. I testify that this is His work. This is His truth and His Gospel in its fulness and everyone needs it. It is important for everyone because we are all God´s children and He wants us all to come home.

I love you all SO SO MUCH!!!! BESOS!!!

Hna Chipman

Linda Mar del Plata! Chao!!

Linda compy. She´s so good. Gonna miss her!

But my new compy is pretty great too. Isn´t our little rama cute? :)

Leaky roof! We had a MASSIVE rain storm yesterday. Like blizzard rain.
Luckily we made it back to our casa right before it hit.
And good thing we had some buckets!!

Meanwhile, this was happening outside. The roads just all turn to rivers in the rain.
Maybe we should invest in a raft. :P

The weekly dog picture. :)

Pioneer Dayyyys

Well hi there mi querida familia!!! I sure do love you all!!

Now, what all happened this week...

Presidente and Hna Parreño were here for interviews!! Gosh, they are just the best. I definitely know I was called to this mission just for them. I can´t wait to visit them in Spain after all this! ;)

This week we´ve mostly been trying to find people to teach, which means lots of walking and lots of talking to errybody. This always makes for funny stories though. For example, we knocked on this door looking for a contact we´d made earlier and another girl answered. I start going off in Castellano asking all sorts of questions. She responds and I did not understand what she was saying. Haha, that´s still pretty normal so I asked one of my questions again and she just looked confused. I´m like, dang it!!! I can´t even speak this language! Meanwhile Hna Saunders is thinking, ok this girl is not speaking Spanish. German maybe?? Haha, yeah that went right over my head. Eventually we got on the same page and found out she´s from Denmark and speaks English. Then we had a nice little conversation in English. :) Haha, my favorite though was we knocked on this door and about ten seconds later we see this finger poke through the letter flap and then disappear.... So what did we do?? Knock again of course! No shame. :)

I think the most exciting thing this week was the opportunity we´ve had to live like pioneers. For the majority of this week we´ve been without running water and this is common during the summer in Mar del Plata. When it´s hot out all the people go to the beach or fill up their pools or wash their cars, then they all go home and shower and there´s not enough water pressure to fill our water tanks. Since we live on the second floor, we have zero water. But down below there´s a nice little water spicket, so we just go downstairs with our buckets, fill ´em up, and take bucket showers. So fun, haha. We´re actually kind of used to it now. But we´re in the process of looking for a new apartment, on the bottom floor, with a washing machine, haha. Good times in the mission field. :)

That´s all for this week! I love you!! Make good choices and read your scriptures! :D

Con mucho amor,

Hna Chipman

Making pizza with Luci! They´re moving this week. :(

FHE night with Nico and the Riquelmes!

9 meses (months) for me compy!! :D
(explanation: her companion has been on her mission for 9 months, thus the joke)
;)

Where´s mine???

This pup comes to church erry week! :)

Gonna miss these two. SUCH a cute couple. They help us so much!

Who wants to shower?? ;)

Feliz Año!! (SIN alcohol) ;)

Hey fam bam!

Was New Years really this week? Seems like FOREVER ago! We had ourselves a fun little time, even if we couldn´t stay up until midnight (not that we even wanted to - we´re always SO tired!). We had some facturas and vino SIN alcohol. :) Haha, we were looking all over for something similar to sparkling cider and we kept having to ask all the shopkeepers for vino (wine) or cidra (cider) WITHOUT alcohol. No worries, we found it. Also, in lots of Latin countries they have this tradition where in the last 12 seconds of the year they eat 12 grapes and make 12 wishes while doing it. We just set our clocks to midnight and pretended. :) I think I only got like 7 grapes in my mouth. Next time I´ll use smaller grapes. Well, we knew when it was midnight because we heard all the fireworks going off, for hours it seems like. I remember having a dream that night with lots of guns in it...

Oh!!! It "snowed" this week!!! :D We had a massive, random hail storm. Luckily we were in centro and could easily find cover to wait it out. The weather has been super weird. It´s been cold! I was wearing boots and tights this week!! But today it´s back to good, ole hot. Looks like it´s summer after all. :)

This week I´ve been thinking a lot about commandments and what a blessing they really are. Too often we view commandments from God as restrictions or obligations that keep us from being happy, but that couldn´t be farther from the truth. Commandments are really INSTRUCTIONS FOR HAPPINESS from our loving Heavenly Father. He KNOWS what will bring us true happiness, and what will not. He´s given us the answers because He loves us and wants us to be happy more than anything. What we think will make us happy, may actually not, but if we listen to our Father and obey His commandments we can be 100 percent sure that we will always find true, lasting happiness waiting for us. With this New Year and all the New Year resolutions I invite you to make it a goal to be more obedient to the commandments. Pick a commandment that´s a little difficult for you to keep and focus more on obeying it, and I promise you will LOVE the results. :)

Love ya fam!!! You are my sunshine... besides all the sunshine we have today... ;)

Con MUCHO amor,

Hna Chipman

How we celebrated New Years - SIN alcohol. ;)

Closest thing to snow we´re gonna see!!

What happens after every rainstorm.

Santa made it to Argentina!! :D

This one is for you Dad. I found a friend for Hersh and Molls!!

2015 - one full year in the mish!

CHEERS!!

Ringing in the año nuevo. :)

Christmas Miracles

Happy almost New Year!!

First and foremost, I have another birthday shout-out to my hermanito Kyle!! Wow, 21. I can´t believe it!! FELIZ CUMPLE!!! Don´t drink too much sparkling cider. ;)

Holy cow, Christmas has come and gone. It didn´t feel like Christmas at all, thanks to all the hot and the humidity, but we still had a good lil Christmas here! For Noche Buena we had a BBQ with Dorisu´s family. Asada, chicken, sausage, potatoes, salad. SO MUCH FOOD. Here they don´t usually eat until midnight to celebrate Christmas and then they have fireworks and party all night and then sleep all the next day. This family was kind enough to eat early so we could be in the house by 9:30 and in bed by 10:30. Yeah, party animals!

And it looks like we had a white Christmas afterall, and not the kind with snow... Yeah, that´s right, NICO GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! :D :D :D And he was just so happy. We had our own little Christmas miracle with him. He told us on Tuesday that his family had changed their minds and decided to support him, that if this was something he wanted to do, then he should do it. He told us he knows that through prayer and fasting miracles can happen. And he was SO excited about his baptism. We had it after church but he said that he didn´t really sleep the night before because he didn´t want to miss it! This kid. He is so happy and so willing to follow the Savior and he is being richly blessed because of it. LOVE IT!

Oh fam, it was so good to see you! Thanks for all your love and support. I couldn´t be doing this without you! ¡¡Feliz año!! Have fun ringing in the New Year! We´ll be in bed by 10:30 like normal, haha.

Con mucho amor,

Hna Chipman

Our Christmas feast!

Christmas BBQ!! That´s a new one...

Just look at all that MEAT.

Argentine sparkling cider. Woohoo!!

Victory pose!!! :D

Pancakes and homemade syrup on this HOT Christmas morning.
Not quite waffles, strawberries, and whipped cream, but still tasty!

Finally, a BIG Christmas tree!

Aww, Nico. Best day!!

#whitechristmas #chiste

Feliz Navidad, dun dun dun dun. Feliz Navidad, dun dun dun dun. Feliz Navidad, prospero año, feliz edad! Yeah, that song has been playing in my head for weeks now, haha.

Well Merry Merry Christmas fam!!!!! But, ok, what´s with all this no snow?? Don´t worry. We don´t have any here either. But hopefully you´ll get some for Christmas! Can´t believe that´s this week!

I´ve finally got my nueva compañera!!! :) Her name is Hna Saunders. She got here at 1am this morning. Pobre. We´re gonna do lots of sleeping today, haha. She´s from Ogden and has almost 9 months in the mish. Hna Heumann lived with her before and always says the best things about her. Stoked!!! Speaking of Hna Heumann, she got transferred to Santa Rosa in La Pampa and Hna Bermudez is here finishing the training of Hna Tovar, who arrived when I did. Now there are two greenies (new missionaries). Oh boy!!

Things with Nico are so good. He is SO golden. He loves being in the capilla and he asked us to let him know when we are teaching other lessons there so he can come read his scriptures. Yeah, for real. AND he´s already asking questions and talking about a mission. HOLLA!!! Next weekend he´s going to Buenos Aires to talk to his family about why he wants to be baptized. He´s calling it his mini mission. He has been SO prepared!! :D

I´m sure most of you have seen this by now, but either way, go to Youtube and watch "He is the Gift". I just love that video. I can´t tell you how many times I´ve seen it now, but I never get tired of it. It´s so beautiful. He is the reason we´re celebrating right now. He is the reason this wonderful life and all our blessings are possible. I invite all of you to take a few moments and ponder what the life of our Savior means to you and then think of one thing you can do to show Him your gratitude for His life, love, and sacrifice this Christmas. He is what this is all about.

Oh boy, I can´t wait to see your cute faces in a few days!! Merry Christmas!!! I love you all to the moon and back!

AMOR,

Hna Chipman

One of our sweet investigators Maria de los Angeles at our weekly Noche de Hogar.

I ate liver and blood sausage in one meal. Blood sausage, pretty tasty. Liver... no gracias. :)

Church con Nico!! He even came early to read his scriptures. So proud of him!!!! :D

Our sweet lil´ hijo Brian. One day I´ll be able to give this kid a big hug.

My new compy, Hna Saunders!!!!

Milagros en MdP!!

Well hi there familyyyyyy!

We´ve had a lovely week here in MdP! So many good things/miracles.

We had our missionary Christmas party on Tuesday! Presidente and Hna Parreño were here, as well as the missionaries from all the zones in Mar del Plata. What a blast. We sang at a couple retirement homes, ate a big Christmas lunch (with Motab and David Archuleta playing in the background - holla!), and had a Christmas devotional and talent show. Hna Pinnock and I sang a rendition of "I Am a Child of God" with fake mustaches... don´t worry. I got all the awkwardness on video, haha. We are quite the duo. ;)

I can´t believe this transfer is over already! Hna Pinnock left yesterday to start her journey home. :( Yeah, we cried. I miss her already. I could not have asked for a better trainer. I actually won´t get my new companion until next week, so right now I´m in a trio with the other Hermanas, Hna Heumann and Hna Bermudez.

We had people at church this week!!! First, this cute lil´ lady and her two niños. We met them in the street the other day and invited her. We passed by her house in the morning and she was ready to go! Heck yes! She liked it and now I´ve got some really pretty art in my agenda from her kids. :)

Second, our boy Nico. Lemme tell you about him. He is a BOSS. We started teaching him three or four weeks ago and everything has really just clicked with him. He´s been reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it and he knows it´s true. But things have come up that have kept him from coming to church and this past week he told us that if he gets baptized he can´t live at his house anymore (he lives with his parents and sisters). Dang. That´s tough. BUT he know this church is true and he wants to be part of it. He wants to be a good example for his family and he knows this Gospel can help him do that. So right now we´re fasting and praying real hard that his parents will support him in this decision. They don´t mind us coming by and they always greet us, so we´re not exactly sure what´s up. For now, we´re gonna keep teaching him; he´s gonna keep reading, praying, and coming to church. Future missionary/bishop/leader right hurrrrr! But seriously, his faith is INCREDIBLE!

Oh, I just love you all so much! I hope you´re having fun getting all ready for Christmas! Throw some snowballs for me!

Con amor,

Hna Chipman

So fancy eating at McD´s. But seriously. This is like SUPER fancy here.

Going to sing for the cute abuelitos! :)

MAR!

Matching pens for Christmas. Presh.

Facturas. Oh yeah. This was our dinner one night. Bad idea, haha, but SO yummy!

Our boy Nicoooo! :D

I love this woman. Miss her already!